"Clocks" by Jerome K. Jerome is a funny story that looks at how people act around clocks and time. The essay, written with a humorous and lighthearted tone, uses a personal story about a grandfather clock that doesn't work right to show how people often pretend to be something they're not and care too much about what things look like on the outside. In the story, the author buys an old clock that strikes random hours, which leads to funny problems and anxieties for his family, turning the clock into a symbol for life being unpredictable and how silly it is to try to control everything. Through jokes and careful observations, it also makes us think about what’s really important when it comes to time and being human.

Clocks
By Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
An unreliable timepiece hilariously reveals the chaos of life and our foolish obsession with keeping up appearances.
Summary
About the AuthorJerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat; and several other novels. Jerome was born in Walsall, England, and, although he was able to attend grammar school, his family suffered from poverty at times, as did he as a young man trying to earn a living in various occupations. In his twenties, he was able to publish some work, and success followed. He married in 1888, and the honeymoon was spent on a boat on the River Thames; he published Three Men in a Boat soon afterwards. He continued to write fiction, non-fiction and plays over the next few decades, though never with the same level of success.
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat; and several other novels. Jerome was born in Walsall, England, and, although he was able to attend grammar school, his family suffered from poverty at times, as did he as a young man trying to earn a living in various occupations. In his twenties, he was able to publish some work, and success followed. He married in 1888, and the honeymoon was spent on a boat on the River Thames; he published Three Men in a Boat soon afterwards. He continued to write fiction, non-fiction and plays over the next few decades, though never with the same level of success.